Location: Fort Benning, Muscogee County, Georgia
Age: 20
Year: 1941
Pvt. Albert H. King, 20, was killed by military police officer Robert Lummus near Fort Benning in Muscogee County, Georgia.
King was accused of disorderly conduct during a bus trip from Columbus back to Fort Benning military base.
Lummus entered the bus and attempted to apprehend King, who initially escaped, but was subsequently spotted by Lummus.
Lummus shot King multiple times, alleging self-defense, and was cleared of wrongdoing in military proceedings.
The case was followed closely by William Hastie, then civilian aide to Secretary of War Henry Stimson. Hastie objected to the Army’s disposition of the case.
Professor Rose Zoltek-Jick, CRRJ’s associate director, worked with the King family and lawyers at the firm of Morgan Lewis to correct official army records that stated King’s death had been “not in the line of duty.” In November 2022, an army review board granted their petition. King’s records were corrected and his death is now listed as having occurred “in the line of duty.”
For more information, search CRRJ’s archive.
Read more about King’s death on the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive
About the Archive
The Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive houses case files and documents for more than 1,000 cases of racial homicides in the Jim Crow South. Co-founded by Melissa Nobles, professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Margaret Burnham, CRRJ director and professor of law at Northeastern, these uncovered stories highlight how violence affected lives, defined legal rights and shaped politics between 1930 and 1954.
Recent news on King's case
Private Albert King was killed at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1941. The case was investigated by the journalist Alexa Mills, a former CRRJ student. The King story appears in the Washington Post Magazine.…
An article in today’s New York Times features a case that CRRJ uncovered. The case involved the killing of a soldier in Georgia in 1941. Professor Rose Zoltek-Jick worked with the family, and…
An article published by The Washington Post, Jan. 15, highlights CRRJ’s efforts to reverse findings about the death of Pvt. Albert H. King’s in 1941.
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